Groups sue to block Maverick County coal mine

By John MacCormack :
April 26, 2013
: Updated: April 27, 2013 8:50pm

In a broad-based legal challenge to the operation of a large coal strip mine just upriver from Eagle Pass, five Maverick County entities have filed three lawsuits in state district court in Austin.

The suits, filed Thursday, ask the court to reverse the January decision by the Texas Railroad Commission to grant Dos Republicas Coal Partnership a permit to extract up to 11 million tons of low-grade coal.

The plaintiffs include the City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County and a local environmental coalition.

The coal would be taken by train through Eagle Pass to Mexico to fuel two electric generating plants that already contribute significantly to air pollution in Texas, Baxter said.

“We're against it for health and safety considerations,” he said, noting the potential for mine discharges polluting the Rio Grande, which supplies Eagle Pass with its drinking water.

In its suit, filed jointly with the local hospital district, the city of Eagle Pass makes similar claims of harm to the public. It further claims that the permit to open the mine should have lapsed years ago because no operations were begun as required by law.

Although the coal partnership, which is owned by Mexican industrialists, has touted the mine as a safe project and an economic shot in the arm for Maverick County, it has been opposed since it first surfaced in the 1970s.

An earlier, similar legal battle over a permit granted to a different operator went all the way to the state's 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, which ruled in favor of the mine operators. They never opened the mine.

The Railroad Commission voted 2-1 in January to grant the permit after hearing a recommendation by a hearing examiner, who had heard months of testimony, to allow the mine to operate.